A new study has revealed a possible frightening consequence of the advent of artificial intelligence.
Developers have already created a number of different purposes for AI; for instance, Microsoft developed and released an AI capable of generating its own code in June 2022, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
But researchers from Home Security Heroes conducted a study on AI software designed to crack passcodes. When they put it to the test, the results were startling.
PassGAN, a shortened word for “password” and “generative adversarial networks,” debuted in 2017 and uses machine learning algorithms on a neural network to crack generated passwords.
This AI-powered software uses data from real-world security breaches.
Home Security Heroes sought to test this AI against more than 15,600,000 common passwords, observing the amount of time needed to crack these codes.
Researchers observed that of this number of common passwords, 51% could be cracked in less than a minute, 61% in less than an hour, 71% in less than a day, and 81% in less than a month.
They also observed that civilians tend to use “simpler and easier-to-hack” passcodes rather than secure ones.
“It takes PassGAN [less than] 6 minutes to crack any 7 character password even if it contains symbols,” said researchers in the study.
This study accounted for different aspects of passcodes, including the number of characters as well as the number and distribution of numerals, lowercase and uppercase letters, and special symbols.
Their combinations were also taken into consideration.
While a great number of these combinations could be cracked instantly, some passwords with over 12 characters are reported to take hundreds, millions, billions, and even trillions of years to crack.
The strongest passcode used would reportedly take 6 quintillion years to decrypt.
Nonetheless, researchers in this study described this software as a “concerning” advancement.
These researchers claim that passwords longer than 18 characters are “generally safe,” as it would take at least 10 months to crack an all-number passcode.
Yet given the ease with which cybercriminals could use this AI to access confidential information, the researchers urged civilians to opt for securer passwords.
Here are some guidelines for creating strong passwords, per Home Security Heroes:
- Include at least 15 characters.
- Avoid patterns or words.
- Have at least two of each type of character (lowercase, uppercase, number, symbol).
- Avoid using the same passwords on multiple accounts.
- Change your passcodes every three to six months.
